CONNECTION BETWEEN MEMORY AND HEALTH

Life, as I often stated, results from the presence of a physical-material factor (insentient), a non-physical-material factor (sentient) and a principle of cohesion that keeps the two parts compounded.

There is no doubt: if only one of these two principles is absent there is no life, or at least it is not that kind of reality that we normally call life.

A doctor, consciously or unconsciously, works to keep joined and in a good relationship these factors, because their separation, that can be sometimes caused by a disease, brings to decease or to be more precise it brings to what is usually called death.

Already in a remote past, trying to describe the role of each of these components, people compared the physical-material factor to a blind man who put a seeing-person on his shoulders, without legs (non-material part), to be able to move, while the principle of cohesion could be represented by the need or by the friendship between the two people. In few words, one of them would be dependent on the other one and only the presence of them both would permit that motion that is called Ayus or life in Sanskrit.

As my readers know well, I could now talk over and over about the most refined philosophical speculation, but this is not the aim of my article, and I won’t do it; instead, I will place emphasis on an aspect of the sentient part, that is the part that Indians call Purusa. It can be interesting to examine its qualities, to understand the mechanism that can bring, sometimes, to illness or that, in any case, makes difficult any sort of change, whether it would be a positive or a negative change.

Purusa brings different contributes to the material part Prakriti: besides the possibility “to see” symbolically presented above, the most important contribute is to give to material conscience and memory.

I will try now a more detailed explanation. Life and memory move together: while is consuming experience, every living being has inside memories of the lived past that can result constricting and can block the change or liberation (both material and spiritual liberation).

If I remember, I red on a scientific review that some scientists, during advanced trials, built the “void” to study the physical behaviour of material in relation to this habitat.

With the help of a force, they tried to push several times the same particles into the “void” and they took note of their reactions or change of route. The protracting of the experiment surprised them... particles seemed to repeat spontaneously some paths, as they learnt or “remembered” it.

This “phenomenon” is something to chew on: if, for example, we refer to our body, we must know that memory is present at all levels of our psychophysical constitution, from little cells to big organs to mind.

Memory, when it is a well-educated instrument, helps to not repeat the same errors; but, when memory is a not properly used instrument, it creates memories that bind to behavioural actions that disqualify existence, producing states of discomfort and disease.

Another aspect to keep in mind is related to strong impressions: lots of repetitions of a situation make memories chronic and radically fixed.

Let’s see a practical example: if in life one only smoked once or twice, this experience is present in his memory at different levels, from the physical to the emotional, mental level, etc. very lightly and easily removable. Instead, we can easily understand the strong effect of a constant repetition, many times in a day and years, of the same action.

To remove this kind of impression is a very hard obstacle that we can find in a path of changing, for example a path to recovery.

This should bring us to a bigger consciousness in choosing our actions and make us understand how important is to choose healthy actions.

Ancient and wise Indians, also considering the vibrating nature of man, suggested, with the purpose to act on memories, solutions as the japa mantra that is the repetition of vibrating formulas of healing. I tell you, because I tried it myself, that they give very good results.

As I stated before, in another article written years ago about breathing, depending on the emotional state in which we are, we breathe between 14/15000 times to 22/24000 times per day. That big number of repetitions founds a so deep memory that the act seems automatic to us. For this reason, a defect of the breathing act results very hard to remove. The problem is well known at Yoga schools in which Pranayama, or breathing education, is practiced.

So, we must be very careful to what we eat, drink, to our thoughts nature, emotions with which we feed... That’s why in the disciplines I practice, Yoga and Ayurveda, we work for a healthy awake of consciousness, believing that this can save us.

Think, for example, to unaware people, especially young people, without any experience, that in some phase of their adolescence feed themselves with violence and sadness, seeing, with morbid ripetitiveness, films and listening to authors that purpose sad music. The first ones will surely become violent adults and the second ones are destined to suffer from depression.

We also have to be careful to collective and cultural memories: every time, for example, that I go to India with my pupils, I notice, as days go by, their need of Italian food, like spaghetti for example, even if, from a dietetic point of view, this food is not suitable for everyone.

Now, the question is: in which way can we free ourselves from bad memories?

The only answer is: we need a strong will power and often a big effort.

It is also to clarify that it is not easy, often we have to do an effort that is at least as big as the one that brought us in that condition. The experience has been made also in spiritual life.... A tiger does not change its stripes, nor a leopard its spots: it can be a given.

As a conclusion and example, I want to refer to smokers that often ask my help, and I say to them: do you remember the effort you made when you learnt smoking?? Well, how can you pretend to easily stop smoking in a short time when inside you live memories so radically fixed? How can you trust the lies of a partial advertising that promise that you will easily and soon stop smoking with a little effort? Who tried it knows that the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual memory of smoke persecutes for years. And if you don’t have the strong spirit that is needed to give up smoking, any attempt to get rid of and recover will not work.

In the end, I suggest to therapists to take into consideration this aspect of memories; in fact, without a big effort by themselves and their patients, healing will never be complete. If the disease will be not totally removed with a therapy that can modify the presence of bad memories at all levels, sooner or later the same disease will duly come back.